Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank People Before Profit for bringing forward this Bill, which Sinn Féin fully endorses. I also thank the Debenhams workers across the country for their inspiring achievement in bringing about this Bill. The Bill proposes that the law be changed to prioritise workers, giving them the right to be placed as a top creditor in the case of liquidations. Most importantly, any unpaid redundancy agreements or unpaid collective agreements would be recognised as bona fide debts in law. For too long, the injustice of workers being placed at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to payouts has been accepted and protected by law with the complicity of the State, especially in the case of strategic liquidations, with many workers getting the horrible Weetabix notification, thus named because most such employees only find out their jobs are gone when they are getting their breakfast on the way to work. Imagine that moment. The kids are ready to go to crèche, school or college, the lunch is packed and Ma and Da are discussing their plans for the day when - bang - your whole world falls down around you This must be stopped. The scenes in Waterford in the early hours of Monday morning, when workers were forcibly removed from picket lines and corralled, must be stopped.

This is why this Bill is so important. We are failing the very people who created the wealth in these companies in the first place. The first draw made in any liquidation must be for the real priority creditors, the employees. As one Debenhams worker put it, this measure is not for them, but for their grandchild. They did not want the same thing to happen to them.

I will digress a small bit and mention the strike of ESB network technicians. I plead with the Government to use its influence, through the CEO and four members of the board of the company whom the Government appoints, to bring this dispute to an end and to recognise the mandate of the union involved.

Again, I commend all those who brought this Bill forward. This is simply a choice for all Deputies in this House. They will either favour the workers or favour the existing laws that allow employees to be placed last in line when it comes to compensation or redundancy payments. I hope they will choose the former. I also hope the Government will withdraw its delaying amendment.

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